2016 Resolutions Tag

I don’t usually make resolutions because I don’t like feeling the pressure of having to keep them. I’m the kind of person who has to meet every deadline and achieve every goal that I set, so I prefer to just not set goals that will make me feel bad about myself if I can’t achieve them. Having said that I do like to reflect upon the previous year and think about how I can improve, so here are some things I’d like to do this year.

This tag was created by Trisha @ The Bookgasm Blog and I was tagged by her, as well as the lovely Summer @ Xingsings.

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BOOKISH RESOLUTIONS

In 2016, I will…

1. Read 100 books:

I think this should be a pretty easy goal to achieve. I read 207 books last year, but I didn’t want to set my goal at 200 and put too much pressure on myself. Hopefully I can clear my goal of 100 pretty easily.  I review 3 books every week on this blog and Happy Indulgence, which means that I should be reading upwards of 150 books this year anyway.

2. Buy fewer books:

If you’ve seen my book hauls, you’ll know that I acquire far too many books each month. I’m currently on a book-buying ban but I think I might just set a monthly budget after I end my ban at the end of this month.

3. Shrink my TBR:

My TBR is massive and I want to get it down to under 100 books (maybe under 75 if I’m diligent) this year. Hopefully this will work out okay if I stick to my goal of buying fewer books.

4. Read 50+ backlist books:

This is linked to my previous two goals. I want to read 50 books that were released before 2016 (preferably ones that I’ve already purchased).

5. Stop pre-ordering so many books:

Pre-ordering is my favourite thing to do. I love going through upcoming releases and pre-ordering a whole bunch of them a month or two ahead. And I’m usually very good at reading pre-orders as soon as they arrive. But I want to cut down on the number of books I pre-order and wait until I’ve read a few reviews before committing to buying.

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BOOK BLOGGING RESOLUTIONS

In 2016, I will…

1. Cut down on tag posts:

I currently do one tag every week and a lot of them are very repetitive. I usually just have the same answer for every single tag and there are certain books that just appear in every tag that I do.

2. Try to do some discussion posts:

I don’t know if you’ve noticed… but I haven’t posted a single discussion on this blog (I have done one on Happy Indulgence). If I cut down on the number of tags I do, I want to replace them with discussions.

3. Schedule ahead:

I currently do schedule ahead, but I really only schedule posts for the upcoming week. I want to be a little bit more organised and schedule farther ahead, especially since I’ll be a little more busy this year.

4. Comment back more promptly:

I used to be so good at replying to comments and blog hopping but I’ve gotten really lazy in the last 2 months. I want to reply to comments soon after I receive them so that they don’t start piling up.

5. Keep up with the bookstagramming:

I finally created a bookstagram account, after much peer pressure from Jeann and Aila! Knowing me, I will probably end up posting really infrequently, but I hope you follow me anyway @readingwithjenna 🙂

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CAREER/ACADEMIC RESOLUTIONS

In 2016, I will…

1. Actually do work at work:

My full-time job is my PhD, so my schedule is very flexible and there’s almost no supervision at all. My thesis supervisor works from home more often than not, so there’s really nobody checking up on me and making sure that I’m actually doing work during work hours. I found that towards the end of last year, I ended up doing a lot of blogging and commenting during work hours… so I want to cut down on that.

2. Actually go to work:

Hahahaha. I’m really introverted and I love staying at home. I love working from home and there are weeks where I only go in to the office 2 or 3 days a week. It also doesn’t help that I spend 2-3 hours a day commuting to and from the university. But I will try to go in more often this year.

3. Improve on my programming skills:

I have to program every single one of my experiments and even though I’ve been doing it for a while now, I still feel like an amateur at coding. The more senior PhD student in my lab is finishing up her PhD and will be moving on to her PostDoc position in April so I won’t be able to go up to her and get her to tell me what I’m doing wrong.

4. Attend more conferences and actually give talks:

I only went to one conference last year (as well as a free Sydney postgraduate conference that everybody attends anyway) and I presented a poster instead of a 15 minute talk because I was too terrified. I want to get my confidence up and start giving conference talks instead of the more informal poster presentations.

5. Stop doing things for free:

This one sounds kind of awful of me but let me explain. There are lots of things that I do at the university that I could be paid for. For example, helping out an Honours student with their programming. I usually do these things for free because I want to be helpful, but then people start expecting me to keep doing these things for free. Some of the academics that I used to do paid research assistant work for still contact me occasionally and get me to do stupid 10 minute tasks like moving equipment from one room to another. It’s kind of hard for me to ask to be paid for something that’s so simple and quick, but it’s 10 minutes of my time that is wasted.

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PERSONAL RESOLUTIONS

In 2016, I will…

1. Do more travelling:

I love to travel but I’m just too lazy to actually plan trips. I haven’t been out of the state since the end of 2012 when I went to North America. I’ll be attending some more conferences this year, including one in Florida (fingers crossed). So hopefully I can do a bit more travelling this year.

2. Be more social:

Like I said, I’m super introverted and I hate going out. But I want to go to a few more events this year. We actually have PhD drinks after work every Friday, and I almost never go… but I want to at least make an appearance every now and then.

3. Start sleeping at normal hours of the night:

I’m a night owl and I sometimes sleep at 2am, 3am, 4am… I want to start sleeping before 12am and actually get a good 8 hours of sleep.

4. Learn to cook:

LOL. This is my goal every year and I never end up doing any cooking at all since I still live at home.  But I will try.

5. Save 70% of my income:

This one might be a bit difficult since I’m a really big spender. But like I said before, I’m still living at home so that I can continue to save for my own place in a few years (also, I’m introverted and people annoy me so I don’t think I could have flatmates without being in a constant state of anger). I have three sources of income this year so I’m hoping that I can save even more.

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I TAG:

I’m not going to tag any one in particular because I know that not every one makes resolutions. But feel free to do this if you’re interested!